0-538-72683-0_01 Page 1 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
1
Introduction to Company
Research Strategies,
Search Techniques, and
Data Resources
C ompany research is a tool for gathering information on a spe-
cific company. One might use this tool for a variety of reasons;
the target of the research may be a competitor, a customer, a
potential partner, or an adversary in a lawsuit. The client who will
use the research data may be a coworker or other business associate, your boss, or even you. The research techniques in this volume provide an efficient and straightforward way to gather
company information that is readily available from a variety of
sources.
Some situations will require techniques beyond the scope of
this volume: extremely detailed information, sophisticated analysis,
or analysis of a company in a broader context than can be provided
by looking only at company data. Other volumes in this series
provide guidance for such situations, examining ways to find
additional information, identify special-purpose resources, and
describe the analysis of data in a particular context.
To determine which tools you will need in a given situation—
namely, the sources used, the amount of information gathered,
and the method of data analysis—you must first consider the
purpose of your research. How will the information be used by
your client? Identifying the client’s needs allows you to limit the
scope of your search, develop more successful research strategies,
and more fully understand the results of your research.
1
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 2 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
DEFINING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM:
WHAT IS THE QUESTION?
“What can you tell me about the XYZ Company?” This is a typical
request for company research, and it doesn’t take one very far.
The biggest challenge in researching a company is not finding
the information but rather finding out what your client really
wants—a process that should take place before you begin your
research.
You cannot develop an effective search strategy until you
know precisely what the question is. If you do not answer the
correct question, your client will not be satisfied no matter how
hard you work. An executive who asked for a company’s
“financials” but really wants only the quarterly revenue figures
released yesterday will be unappreciative of the thorough analysis
of the company’s financial condition you performed. You must
somehow transform a general request for information, such as
“What can you tell me about the XYZ Company,” into something
more targeted, such as “We’re considering hiring the XYZ
company to manage the launch of a new product. Can they
handle a project of this size?”
The reference interview is the process of identifying precisely
what kind of company research will help your client make a
sound decision or solve a problem. This gentle interrogation lets
you and your client determine exactly what facts, opinions, or
stories are needed. The goal of the reference interview is a
detailed restatement of the original request that satisfies both you
and the client. This restatement should define the exact information needed, identify time and budgetary constraints, and
describe delivery formats.
An experienced researcher will understand that the client’s
goals may be less than clear and will direct the interview
accordingly. Your clients may not be familiar with all the kinds of
information you can retrieve and how it can help them.
Frequently, your clients will not be able to articulate their
questions completely because they have simply not given the
matter enough thought. Clients are often reluctant to tell you
exactly what they need because they fear that it doesn’t exist.
They may also be reluctant to reveal their ignorance. You will
need to rely on all your communication skills to conduct an
effective interview. “Would it help you if I could find X?” is one of
the key questions you should ask. The skillful interviewer can
help the clients identify the needed information without making
them feel like criminal suspects or ignorant schoolchildren.
2
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 3 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
It’s also important to consider the logistics of the interview. It
may be tempting to conduct the interview over the telephone or
via e-mail, but don’t underestimate the value of a face-to-face
encounter. Telephone interviews can be effective, but they don’t
provide the visual cues that can help you direct the interview. For
example, let’s say that you suggest a particular avenue of research
and this produces a puzzled expression but not a verbal question.
In a telephone interview you miss this response altogether, and
thus miss the opportunity to explain your reasoning more
thoroughly. Meeting in person allows you to take advantage of
other nonverbal communication, as is often the case with
engineers and others who tend to communicate graphically,
often sketching out their information needs even if they are not
discussing a technical subject.
Conducting interviews via e-mail is difficult if not impossible
unless you know your clients well and have worked with them on
numerous occasions. You may use terminology that is unfamiliar
to your clients, and you may misinterpret terms they use. Unless
requests are extremely simple and straightforward, follow-up
telephone calls will be essential. At the very least the process will
require several exchanges. For these and other reasons, the best
way to conduct a reference interview is in person. Tone of voice,
facial expression, and body language will all help you in guiding
the conversation.
The structure of the interview is also important. Before you
meet with your client, you should have a good idea what you will
need to know and have a strategy for obtaining this information.
The interview should answer several questions, including: Who
will use the information and why? What does the client already
know about the company in question? and What are the time and
budget constraints?
Defining the Depth of the Project: How Will the Information
Be Used?
When you know why your client needs the information, you will
have a good understanding of the depth of the project and will
be able to identify the optimum delivery format. During the reference interview, ask questions such as:
What do you plan on doing with the information?
What decision are you trying to make?
3
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 4 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Will you be incorporating the information into a report?
Why is this company interesting to you?
Again, identifying the purpose of the information will help
shape your research. For example, if you are asked to compile a
corporate profile because your client met the company’s president
at a Chamber of Commerce dinner, a record from Hoover’s
Online1 may be sufficient. But if your client wants a company
profile because he or she is interested in a company as an
acquisition candidate, extensive and expensive research will be
needed. In either instance, your client may not be able to tell you
exactly what elements should be in the profile. But if you
understand the reasons behind the inquiry, you can suggest items
for inclusion. You could, for example, show the client who knows
little about the company a sample profile from Hoover’s. In the
case of the acquisition candidate, you could suggest available data
and discuss sources to construct a profile specification.
Finding out how the information will be reported can also be
critically important. Let’s say your client is a marketing manager
who wants to know about the advertising campaign of a competitor.
If the manager is writing an analysis on the effectiveness of the
competitor’s campaign, you will look for articles in advertising trade
publications, presentations by the competitor’s advertising staff,
Wall Street analysts’ reports, and press releases. If the manager is
developing a PowerPoint presentation illustrated with the
competitor’s ads, you will need to find downloadable versions of the
ads or obtain issues of the publications in which the ads have
appeared so they can be scanned.
Identifying the Ultimate Consumer of the Information: Who
Wants to Know?
Knowing who will use the information can also help you refine
the research problem. An inquiry about a company that comes
from a CFO will probably be quite different from an inquiry that
comes from a marketing manager. The questions you ask in the
reference interview will vary with the identity and job function of
your client.
1. Hoover’s Online, at http://www.hoovers.com, delivers continuously updated intelligence on
public and private companies worldwide. Dun & Bradstreet recently acquired Hoover’s.
4
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 5 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
For instance, you might ask the CFO:
Do you need a 10-K? (the annual report filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission [SEC])
Are there specific financial numbers you’re looking for?
Do you want to know about ownership?
You might ask the marketing manager:
Do you want a list of the company’s products?
Do you need to know who their advertising agency is?
Would information on their share of the market be useful?
If you are dealing with an intermediary, such as an administrative assistant, analyst, or lab technician, you will want to know
who the ultimate recipient of the information will be. The
information needed by a patent attorney will be different from
that needed by a chemist, even if the request relayed to you
sounds very much the same. If at all possible, convince the
intermediary that you need to talk directly with the client. In
most cases, working only with an intermediary will complicate the
reference interview process. The exception is an intermediary
who has worked with you enough to understand the level of
detail you need in a request and can also explain to your client
the kind of information available.
Defining the Project Scope: What Does the Client Know
Already?
Learning what the client already knows is a critical element of the
reference interview, helping you not only to define the project
but also to ensure that you satisfy the client. Sometimes it is
enough to ask what brought the company to the client’s attention. Let’s say that your client saw an extensive article on the company in Fortune Magazine or saw the CEO on a talk show. You need
to know this so that you don’t conclude that the article in Fortune
has all the information the client needs. If your client formerly
worked for the company and has heard rumors of management
changes, you need to know that, too. Otherwise, you might pack
your corporate profile with information that your client is already
familiar with. On the other hand, if your client is new to the business, you may need to include industry background that will help
put the information in perspective.
5
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 6 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
To find out what your client already knows about the
company, ask questions such as:
Have you been following this company for a while?
Do you need any industry information?
Have you researched the company at all?
In the age of easy access to information on the World Wide
Web, there is a good chance your clients have already checked
the target company’s Web site. They may have used other sources
as well. You need to know not only what they checked, but also
what they retrieved and how satisfied they were with the
information. Just because they checked a corporate Web site, for
example, doesn’t mean they got what they wanted; the
information needed may be there, but your client may not have
been able to find it. Or your client may have retrieved a quarterly
report from EDGAR2 and assumed that it was the most recent
financial data available, not realizing that a press release provides
initial figures for a more recent quarter. Your client’s department
may subscribe to more sophisticated, subject-specific sources
than you do. You want to avoid duplicating your clients’ efforts if
they were productive, and you want to avoid telling them what
they already know.
Constraints: How Does the Availability of Time and Money
Affect the Project Scope and Depth?
The time available to perform a research project and the cost of
the information can dramatically affect how the project will be
conducted and the amount of information that will be retrieved.
Since an enormous amount of company information is available
online, the instant gratification most clients expect is often possible, depending on the breadth of information needed and the
time constraints you are working under. For instance, the client
who needs a corporate profile for a meeting in an hour will probably be satisfied with a stock profile from a service such as
Hoover’s or Factiva.3 However, in many cases the information
needed to satisfy a request must be retrieved from a variety of
2. EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, at http://ww.sec.gov/
edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm, allows retrieval of forms submitted by companies to the SEC.
3. Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company, provides global content covering nearly eight
thousand sources, including Dow Jones and Reuters Newswires and the Wall Street Journal
at http://ww.factiva.com.
6
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 7 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
sources on several online database services and Web sites. Both
the retrieval and the subsequent organization, formatting, and
analysis of the information into a report that is readily accessible
to the client take time. The parameters of the project should fit
the budget, taking into account the costs of the research and its
value for your client.
In fact, you may have difficulty gauging the seriousness of a
request until you reach the discussion of cost. Predicting costs for
a complex project is always difficult. If you pay for the sources you
use on a transactional or pay-as-you-go basis, you can allocate
costs to the project at hand. Whatever the method, it’s important
to give your client a cost estimate that is as accurate as possible.
You should then find out what value your client places on the
information. Once you have reached an agreement with your
client on the information to be provided, estimated the cost, and
determined the value, you can make any adjustments necessary to
bring these three elements in line.
If the value of the research to the client appears low
compared to your cost estimate, you can work with the client to
reduce the scope of the project or prioritize the elements of the
project. If the value of the research appears high compared with
your time estimate, you can negotiate a longer schedule to
complete the necessary research. You want to avoid spending
three-quarters of the project budget, in money or in time, on an
element that is of marginal importance. A useful technique is to
identify the elements that are essential, as opposed to those that
will be useful if time and funds are available.
Answering the Right Question: What If Neither You nor
Your Client Is an Expert?
When a client approaches you with a request for information that
you don’t understand, you should ask your client for clarification.
An understanding of technical terminology and industry buzzwords is essential for effective searching. Knowing how a company
fits into its industry can also be helpful. If you are looking for companies that manufacture a particular industrial chemical, for
instance, you may need to know the generic class of the chemical.
Is it considered a “fine” chemical? Are any of the companies
known to the client? What is the chemical’s primary use? Questions such as these should help get you to the right databases and
directories. If your client has asked for a specific financial figure,
7
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 8 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
you need to know where it is likely to appear in the 10-K. Will it be
in the tables or in the footnotes? If you don’t know, you should
ask. Even if you think you know, you should still seek verification.
What can you do when your client is unable or unwilling to
enlighten you? Check specialized online dictionaries and encyclopedias. If you still have questions, look for an expert, starting
within your own organization. If the request for information is
from an intermediary or a too-busy executive, seek assistance
from others in the client’s department. If no internal resources
can help you, check the Web sites of trade or professional
associations. These sites often include documents designed to
provide an overview of the industry or profession. Check your
local library for books that provide an introduction to the
industry or technology. Do an advanced search in Google4 and
limit the retrieval to sites with “.edu” extensions. You may be able
to locate professors doing research in the subject area who will be
willing to advise you. You can also check the Directory of Special
Libraries and Information Centers, published by Gale Research and
available in most public and university libraries. This directory
lists corporate and government librarians; you may be able to
locate several who specialize in research on your topic. Most will
be quite willing to give you advice on how to approach your
project.
Ask your client for permission before consulting an expert.
Explain that you need a better understanding of the industry or
technology to be certain that you are finding exactly what your
client needs. When you seek help from an expert, be sure that
you are not compromising your client’s confidentiality. Be
conscious of the possibility of creating intelligence opportunities
for competitors. Even if you need only one specific piece of
information, always ask a general question about the industry or
process followed by several specific questions. Do not ask only
one specific question. If you are researching a new industry in
connection with a potential acquisition, consider whether your
questions about the industry could tip off others to your organization’s intentions. If you talk with someone at a trade association, could your inquiry be relayed to others? You may need to be
circumspect even when you consult internal experts. Secrets
within and between departments in the same organization are
not unusual.
4. Google, at http://www.google.com, is a World Wide Web search engine indexing over
2 billion sites.
8
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 9 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
Deciphering the Question: What Is the Client Really Saying?
Conducting a reference interview will challenge your listening
skills. You’ll have to pay close attention to your client’s responses.
For example, when you said, “I can pull the latest 10-K for you,”
did your client hesitate slightly before giving a lukewarm assent?
When you enthusiastically suggested sources, did your client
seem reluctant to admit that this information won’t be needed?
Did your client use lots of qualifiers when asking for biographies
of executives—words and phrases such as “short,” “any type,” or
“whatever you can find”? When your client said that you need
only research the 10-K and you asked what he or she hoped to
find in it, did you get a vague answer?
There might be any number of reasons for this type of
response: Your clients may be embarrassed to ask for things they
think they should be able to find themselves. They may try to
make the research easier for you by giving you a broad request
rather than telling you exactly what they need to know. Clients
will often ask for a document, book, or other source they are
somewhat familiar with, even if they are not sure that it has the
information they need.
If you miss the indicators, you may end up doing much more
work than is needed. Getting clients to tell you what they need,
how they’ll use it, when they want it, and how much they are
willing to spend is rarely easy. You may have to promise confidentiality, and you may have to patiently explain the resources
available to you.
Some individuals will refuse to engage in the reference
interview. They ask for corporate profiles or background on a
company, and no amount of cajoling can entice them to be more
specific. They refuse to tell you why they want to know and seem
to have no particular budgetary or time constraints. All the openended questions you ask are turned aside. In those cases, you
have to resort to questions that can be answered by yes or no. For
instance, you might first ask “Do you need a 10-K?” and then
follow with “Do you need quarterly financials?” and so on.
The reference interview also gives you an opportunity to
manage your clients’ expectations. Although you do not want to
undersell your abilities, you should prepare your client for
disappointment if you suspect the information will be difficult to
obtain. A client who wants a detailed biography of a low-profile
entrepreneur may have to settle for bits and pieces culled from
the society pages and directory listings. Inform your clients of any
9
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 10 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
probable limitations of the research. Better that they be
delighted when you find more information than they expected
than disappointed that you couldn’t find what they expected.
Depending on the circumstances, your clients may even be
relieved when you find little or no information. A public relations
agency trying to win a new customer, for example, may want to
demonstrate a lack of coverage of the company in the press. A
thorough search of newspapers and industry publications that
turns up few mentions of the potential customer company will be
welcomed.
Similarly, the absence of data may itself provide useful
information. A finding that no patents have been awarded to a
pharmaceutical company in the last five years may indicate
management problems, an inadequate research and
development effort, or both.
DEVELOPING RESEARCH STRATEGIES:
WHO KNOWS THE ANSWER?
To develop an effective research strategy, you must carefully analyze the research question. You need to determine who would
have the information; if, when, and where they would communicate it to the world; and how you can obtain cost-effective access
to that communiqué.
Proprietary vs. Public Information
Not all information is publicly available. Trade secrets, such as
the recipe for Coke®, are not available. Sales figures for particular
products, organization charts, or financial information for divisions of companies will often not be available. Information that
companies and individuals are not legally required to disclose
may not be available. Even information that is disclosed to government agencies may not be available. Information provided to
the Internal Revenue Service, for instance, is protected from disclosure. Some information collected by government agencies is
not compiled, so it is not readily available.
Whether or not you will be able to access information on a
particular company depends in large part on whether it is a
public or a private company. U.S. public companies (those that
sell their stock to the public) are required to file detailed
financial statements with the SEC on a regular basis, and these
10
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 11 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
filings are made public. Publicly held corporations also provide
journalists and Wall Street analysts with lots of information so
they will write favorable articles that will encourage people to
purchase the company’s stock or buy its products and services. As
a result, an enormous amount of information is available for
public companies.
Private companies are a different matter. Private companies
are not compelled to reveal financial data to anyone, aside from
taxing authorities. They may provide estimates of revenues to
services such as Dun & Bradstreet (D&B),5 but they are under no
obligation to be accurate. If they plan a public offering of stock in
the near future, they may issue press releases containing financial
information. If they sell bonds or other debt instruments to the
public, some financial information may be available from the
SEC. As a general rule, however, financial information is not
available for private companies.
When a public company owns all the stock of a subsidiary (a
wholly owned subsidiary, the subsidiary is a private company and
only financial information that the company chooses to release
will be available. If all the stock of a public company is purchased
from the shareholders by the company or its officers, the
company becomes private and financial information for future
years will not be available, even though information from
previous years continues to be.
Foreign companies present a slightly different challenge to
researchers. If foreign companies sell their stock on U.S. stock
exchanges, they are required to provide financial data to the
SEC. However, the information available on publicly held foreign
corporations that do not sell stock in the United States varies
from country to country. For instance, public companies in
Taiwan file information on a monthly basis, but in Britain
financial data is reported only annually.
So, the first question to answer when embarking on company
research is, “Is the company public or private?” This should be
relatively easy to answer. Most public companies will have a
section for investors on their Web sites. You can also search by
the company name or a portion of the name in the EDGAR
5. Dun & Bradstreet gathers credit and other information on 75 million companies
worldwide and makes the information available in a variety of formats through its Web site
and through a number of online database services.
11
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 12 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
database or on Hoover’s. Hoover’s generally displays the stock
ticker symbol for a public company, for example, “LUV” for
Southwest Airlines.
The second question is, “Is the information I need something
the company would want the public to know?” If the company is
public, you will generally have access to rich information
resources. If the company is private, you will need to use more
ingenuity and may need to conduct primary research (see below).
If the information is something the company would most likely
keep secret, you will very likely need to use primary research
techniques and may not be able to find the information at all.
Primary vs. Secondary Research
Research techniques and sources fall into one of two categories,
primary and secondary. Primary research techniques collect data
directly from primary sources. These include actual records—
such as SEC filings, annual reports, or customer surveys—and
accounts and descriptions given by the people involved—such as
telephone interviews, speeches given by executives, or press
releases issued by a company. Primary sources have not been
interpreted, evaluated, or otherwise massaged.
Secondary research uses secondary sources, in which a
person not directly involved interprets or analyzes events or data.
These “second-hand” sources might include an editorial about a
merger in a popular newsmagazine, a society columnist’s
description of a CEO’s spending spree, and an economist’s metaanalysis of earnings statements across an entire industry.
We will be discussing both primary and secondary sources,
with a focus on retrieving information from Web sites and online
databases.
Identifying Sources: Who Cares about the Question?
Your first primary source for many company research projects
will be the company itself. Corporate Web sites contain tremendous amounts of information. Many provide detailed product
and service descriptions, including lengthy white papers. Web
sites for public companies generally include detailed financial
statements and annual reports in Portable Document Format
(PDF) that can be opened using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader
software. (PDF preserves all the fonts, formatting, graphics, and
color of any source document, regardless of the application and
12
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 13 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
platform used to create or view it.) The investor relations section
of a company Web site often includes SEC filings, press releases
with quarterly financials, and annual reports. Company Web sites
may even include audio and/or video of presentations by executives and links to analysts’ reports and to articles about the company. Biographies of executives, company history, and press
releases are also common.
Often a company Web site will provide more current
information than the online database services. However,
statements on a corporate Web site represent only what the
company wants the public to believe. For example, many
companies would have you believe that each of their products is a
world-class solution to a strategic problem faced by every
enterprise. In addition, the financial data you will find there is
generally unaudited and may include pro forma results, which
may be markedly different from those calculated in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles (see Figure 1-1).
Figure 1-1. Sample of Pro Forma Financial Data
SEATTLE-(BUSINESS WIRE)-October 24, 2002
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASD: AMZN), today announced financial results for its third
quarter ended September 30, 2002. . . .
Operating loss was $10 million, including restructuring-related and other charges of
$37 million, compared with a loss of $70 million a year ago. Pro forma operating
profit was $27 million, or 3% of net sales, exceeding the Companyís guidance of
between $8 million and $17 million. This compares with a pro forma operating loss of
$27 million in the third quarter 2001, an improvement of over $54 million. . . .6
Reprinted with the permission of Business Wire, Inc.
To obtain a less-biased viewpoint or a least a different
perspective, you must locate other sources of information. You
need to answer the question “Who cares about this product or
industry or company?” The answer will reveal several additional
research sources: Investors care about financial information.
Customers care about product safety, reliability, and
effectiveness. Advertising agencies care about marketing and
advertising campaigns. The general public cares about things
that are new, unusual, and sexy. Competitors care about
everything. Once you have identified the interested parties, you
can seek out publications intended for their consumption.
6. From the AMZN Investor Relations page, at http://www.amazon.com.
13
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 14 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Online database services simplify the process by collecting
databases from a variety of producers and grouping them by
industry. For example, if you need to know how ExxonMobil
handled the problem of competition between Mobil and Exxon
service stations following their merger, you do not need to compile
a list of industry publications. You can search the Oil Library on
LexisNexis,7 the Energy Industry News files on Dialog,8 or the
Energy publications on Factiva. Individual database producers
gather publications in even narrower categories. The Gale Group
Marketing & Advertising Reference Service,9 PIRA (Packaging,
Paper, Printing and Publishing, Imaging and Nonwovens
Abstracts),10 and Foods Adlibra11 are examples of specialized
databases.
Free vs. Paid Services
Newcomers to research often ask, “Why should I pay $2.95 for an
article from an online database service when I can download it
for free from the publication’s Web site?” The primary reason is
that doing your own search can be time-consuming, costly, and
frustrating.
Will the best analysis of American Airlines’s ranking in the
industry be found in Aviation Week & Space Technology, the New
York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, or the
Dallas Morning News? Unless you know the answer, you will need
to search each publication individually. Most publication-specific
sites have rudimentary search capabilities, leaving you to sort
through dozens of articles that may be of only marginal interest.
What’s more, the search may not be free at all. Although the
current issue of many publications is available for free on the
publication’s Web site, more and more publishers now charge for
access to archival issues.
7. LexisNexis, at http://www.lexisnexis.com, provides information about legal and business
affairs, news, and public records through a variety of search interfaces.
8. Dialog, a Thomson company, provides online information services in fields such as
business, science, and engineering at http://www.dialog.com.
9. Gale Group Marketing & Advertising Reference Service includes documents on
consumer products and services, advertising campaigns, product introductions, and news
on advertising and public relations agencies.
10. PIRA provides comprehensive coverage of the literature of the pulp and paper,
packaging, printing, publishing, imaging, and nonwovens industries. It covers both the
scientific and business aspects of these industries.
11. Foods Adlibra, produced by General Mills, indexes periodicals and technical journals
related to food products, production, marketing, and equipment.
14
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 15 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
Alternately, you can search them all at once on Factiva. By
using an online database service you can search hundreds or
even thousands of publications at one time. If you do any amount
of regular research, an online service can soon pay for itself in
time, convenience, and usability.
One could also ask, “Why should I pay for a subscription to
an online database service when I can find thousands of
documents by searching Yahoo! or Google?” The answer is
because your client needs reliable information on which to base
an important decision. Web search engines do not discriminate
unless they accept fees for listings and placement in results lists. A
Web search may indeed provide you with articles from reputable
publications and government documents, but it will also give you
documents from special interest groups, student papers,
individual opinions, and carefully disguised advertising.
Remember, whereas editors of reputable publications do
make an effort to check the accuracy of the works they publish,
there are no such editors for much of the material on the Web.
You may find a terrific, well-researched article written by
someone with impeccable academic credentials, but with no
discernable publication date. The article may be so old that the
conclusions are no longer valid. You may find conference papers
and presentations that include seemingly valuable information,
but do not identify the sponsor or the date of the conference.
Before you let a client rely on any information you gather, you
must be able to tell the client who wrote the article, when they
wrote it, and why they wrote it. You do not want an investment
decision to be based on the opinions of a biased salesperson
whose only goal is to sell a new stock issue.
You may also ask, “Why should I pay for financial data when I
can get it free from EDGAR?” The answer depends in part in your
time and budgetary constraints. Tables from filings on EDGAR
are a perfect example of the data format limitations of many Web
sites. With a conventional font such as Times Roman, the balance
sheet columns do not line up correctly. Lines wrap where they
should not, and column headings are not displayed at the tops of
columns. EDGAR does provide details on the font and margin
changes required to retrieve an EDGAR document in Microsoft
Word and make it readable, and you can spend the time it takes
to reformat a 10-K to make it minimally readable. Or you can
download the tables in Excel format from a service such as
15
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 16 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Mergent Online.12 If your client does not want to do any detailed
analysis of a company’s balance sheet and you have the time to do
word processing, the EDGAR format may be acceptable.
How does one determine whether to start with a Web search
or an online database? Again, it depends on the elements of your
research question. A search of the online database services that
produces limited results will generally cost correspondingly little,
so you may want to search the online databases before resorting
to the Web. But there are several situations in which an initial
Web search might be better. For instance, when you know a
government agency is the collector or producer of the
information, you should start with the Web. The more obscure
the company or industry, the less likely that searches of the
online database services will be fruitful. Similarly, the Web may
be useful for searches on a company located in a rural area, since
local papers in very small towns are not usually included in online
database services. Many business and trade publications now have
an online version that carries different articles than the print
version. The print version is covered by the online databases;
often the online version is not. So in these cases, a Web search
might be more efficient. Finally, directories on the Web may be
the only source of information for small companies without Web
sites. Remember: Be certain to always verify the dates of any
information you retrieve. Companies that disappeared years ago
can remain alive in Web directories long after their demise.
As we’ve seen, after identifying exactly what your client wants,
developing a strategy for finding it is the most difficult aspect of a
research project. You’ll need to make sure you have the right
company, identify possible sources, select the best places to
search, and pick the most cost-effective online database services
to use. Most of the time you should start with the target
company’s Web site, which may answer some of your questions
and may enable you to verify the company’s name. Your next step
will depend on whether information about the company is
readily available, who else is interested in the company, what
clues this gives you about further potential sources, and the time,
cost, and format constraints you’re working under. But often, as
the next section will illustrate, the first challenge is to verify the
company’s name.
12. Mergent Online, at http://www.mergentonline.com, is a subscription-based service
offering information on over ten thousand U.S. public companies and seventeen
thousand non-U.S. public companies. Mergent Online is a product of Mergent, Inc.,
formerly known as Moody’s Financial Information Services and FISonline.
16
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 17 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE SEARCH STATEMENTS:
COMMANDING THE WEB AND THE DATABASES
Although most online database services now offer easy-to-use
interfaces on the Web, a basic search by company name may still
yield hundreds of hits. (Each record that matches a search statement is a hit; many online database services display a hit count—
the number of records matching the search statement.) Reviewing the documents thus retrieved can take an enormous amount
of time, even if the service supplies a relevancy ranking option.
Unlike free Web search engines, most online database services
charge for each record that is viewed. The result is that a basic
search using only a company name can be extremely costly in
terms of both time and money.
Fortunately, one of the advantages of using online database
services is the ability to combine the company name with other
terms in a sophisticated search statement that produces a
limited number of high-quality hits. Developing such a search
statement requires an understanding of the online database
service search functions and of the ways individual databases
treat company names.
Determining the Company Name
The primary ingredient of a search statement is the name of the
target company. Knowing what name to use is often not as easy
as it might seem. Companies change their names, the names
companies use in trade are often not the same as the official
company names, punctuation and spelling of names is not always
observed by databases, many different companies may use the
same name, and clients do not always have the complete or correct company name.
CHANGING NAMES. In 2002, the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company changed its name to 3M. Why would this
name change present a problem in research if everyone has
referred to the company as 3M for years? Because some databases
may not have cross-referenced the new name with the old name.
Indeed, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) shows 1,687 trademarks owned by
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, but only 873 owned by
3M. To further complicate things, some companies change their
names to something unrelated to their previous names. Andersen
17
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 18 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Consulting became Accenture in 2001. Although the Accenture
Web site discusses the creation of the new name, it makes no reference to Andersen Consulting. So clearly, to do a thorough
search, it will help to know all the names a company has used.
Searching by the new name may only retrieve recent material,
whereas searching by the old name may retrieve only older material. Further, if you know only one name and the databases actually cross-reference the two names, you may get really confused
when you retrieve articles that do not mention the name you
used in the search.
ACRONYMS AND PUNCTUATION. Search engines, whether they
are free or fee-based, do not recognize capital letters as different
from lowercase. Thus, a search for the company AIM would yield
all documents including the word “aim.” LexisNexis has special
commands that force recognition of case, but unless they are
used case is ignored.
Punctuation presents a greater challenge. Each search
engine has its own syntax for dealing with punctuation. For
instance, Factiva recognizes some punctuation, but not all; Dialog
generally replaces punctuation with a space. Thus, in Factiva you
can search successfully for at&t, but in DialogClassic, at&t
produces zero hits. Your search term has to follow the rules of the
search engine: in Dialog you would use at()t.
It is also important to know what punctuation is part of the
official name. Most publications use a hyphen to represent the
funky little star in Wal*Mart. This means that you must leave a
space (or use the hyphen) when searching for Wal*Mart in
Factiva, and in DialogClassic you must use the spaceholder “()”—
the open and then the close parenthesis. Unfortunately, not
every publication or database follows the same rules. In Dun’s
Market Identifiers on Dialog there are 5,321 records including
“wal()mart.” There are also 181 for “walmart.” If you search using
only walmart, you might see the resulting hits and not realize you
have the name wrong.
One of the best ways to locate the correct spelling of a company
name is to search a database index. Keep in mind that initial
articles, such as “the,” can sometimes cause problems in such a
search. The Expand command in DialogClassic allows you to select
from a database index that lists all the company names that begin
with a specified word or phrase. Thus, using the command
e co=providence group gives you a list of companies beginning with
18
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 19 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
“providence group” in Dun’s Electronic Business Directory. The list
includes “Providence Group, Inc The” (see Figure 1-2). This is not
the same company as “The Providence Group, Inc.” You must enter
e co=the providence group to retrieve the entire list of company names
that begin with “the providence group.”
Figure 1-2. Sample Search for “Providence Group” in DialogClassic
Welcome to DialogClassic Web™
File 515:Dun‘s Elec. Bus. Dir.™ 2002/Jul
(Copr. 2002 D&B)
Set Items Description
--- ----- ----------?e co=providence group
(Expand to see a list of company names beginning with “providence group.”)
Ref
E1
E2
E3
E4
E5
E6
E7
E8
E9
E10
Items Index-term
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROCERY
1 CO=proVIDENCE GROCERY INC
5 *CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP ADVISORY CO
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP CORP
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP CORPORATION
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP FUNDING LLC
2 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP HOME
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP LIMITED INC
1 CO=PROVIDENCE GROUP LLC THE . . .
?e co=the providence group
Ref
E1
E2
E3
E4
E5
E6
E7
E8
E9
E10
Items Index-term
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE CORPORATION
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE FINANCIAL GROUP INC
2 *CO=THE PROVIDENCE GROUP
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE GROUP CORP
3 CO=THE PROVIDENCE GROUP INC
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE GROUP INVESTMENT ADVISORY COMPA
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE GROUP LLC
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE GROUP TN INC
1 CO=THE PROVIDENCE HEALTH FOOD
3 CO=THE PROVIDENCE HOSPITAL . . .
?REPORT S3/CO,PC,ZP,DN/ALL
(Generate a report with the company name, primary SIC, zip code and Dun’s number.)
19
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 20 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
DIALOG®File 515 :Dun’s Elec. Bus. Dir.™
(Copr. 2002 D&B) All rts. reserv.
Company
Primary Zip
DUNS
Name
SIC Code Number
-------------------------- ------- ---------- ----------B&D Partnership
7389 76049 08-099-3921
Meyers Real Estate Information 8742 23462-6760 88-4154167
Nicholas Tamburo
3541 07974-1217 01-525-0462
Providence Group
7389 84321-4020 05-885-5441
Providence Group
8711 37931-2060 03-475-6051
Providence Group
8748 94403-3131 01-992-3262
Providence Group Corporation 6411 23236-3684 93-832-7954
Providence Group Llc The 8748 92677-1969 02-194-1682
Providence Group Ltd
7389 46077 08-781-8220
Providence Group Ltd
7515 92626-5155 13-897-5664
Providence Group, Inc The 3444 44094-4636 92-640-2306
Providence Group, Inc.
6531 71671-8200 10-390-0671 . . .
You’ll notice that some of the companies listed do not have “Providence Group” in
their names. These were retrieved because they do business as “Providence Group”
or a variation thereof. Dun’s Electronic Business Directory lists the official company
name, included in the list above, and any other names under which a company does
business.
Reprinted with the permission of Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.
2003® Dialog, a Thomson business, http://www.dialog.com. Reprinted with permission
of the publisher.
ONE NAME, MANY COMPANIES. As the Providence Group example shows, some names, or variations thereof, are used by many
different companies. Unfortunately, in such a situation your client may not know which of these several companies is the target
company, or even whether the target company is incorporated, a
limited liability company, a partnership, or a sole proprietor.
Your client may know only part of the name; in our example, you
may not even know for sure whether the name includes the word
“Group.” Perhaps your client read an article that gave the complete company name in the first paragraph and then referred to
it by a single significant word thereafter, and this word is all your
client remembers.
Whenever a client asks for information on a company and
the company name is not immediately recognizable or
ambiguous, you should find out everything the client knows
20
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 21 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
about the company, in addition to what he or she wants to know.
To make sure you research the correct company, ask questions
such as:
Where is the company located? If an address is not available, even a
state will help.
What does the company do?
Are the names of any of the executives known?
How long has it been in business?
How big is it?
When you have as many answers as possible, ask your client
how solid the information is. Even a single error can lead you on
a fruitless search. For instance, if your client says the company is
located in Omaha “or someplace like that,” you might spend a lot
of time searching for companies in midsized, Midwestern cities
before realizing that it’s in Omagh, Ireland. But if you know from
the start that your client isn’t quite sure about the location, you
can consider that as you try to determine which of the dozen
companies with the same name is your target.
How can such a seemingly straightforward search be so
difficult? Although companies change their names, their
organizational structures, and their addresses, many directory
databases do not correct the original information; instead, they
simply add a record. Other databases fail to update their records
in a timely fashion. So, for instance, you may find two records in
D&B that appear to be the same company, but one is a
partnership and the other is a corporation. A record from
Experian Business Credit Profiles13 may have the same name as
the D&B records, but a different mailing address than either.
Further, reporters may not bother to include a complete
company name in an article, especially if the company is not the
primary subject of the article. Is the Bob Jones of Jones
Construction who is quoted in an article about regional
development really Robert M. Jones III, the president of Jones
Brothers Homes? Finally, your client may be positive that some
detail or another she has given you is correct, when it is not.
Things change. Just as public companies may become private,
small corporations may dissolve and reemerge as sole
13. Experian Business Credit Profiles, File 547 on Dialog, contains payment histories,
UCC filings, tax liens, judgments, and contact information on over 8 million U.S.
companies.
21
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 22 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
proprietorships. Companies move. Product lines change or
diversify. Clearly, the seemingly easy task of verifying the name
and address of a company can be a challenge.
If the database you use does not provide company name
indexing, you may be able to search by ticker symbol if the
company is a U.S. public company. This should ensure that you
get all significant records on the target company without
retrieving irrelevant material about other companies with similar
names. The ticker symbol is available on the corporate Web site,
from Hoover’s, at Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com), at
MSN Money (http://moneycentral.msn.com), and by searching
Google with the company name and the word “ticker” (for
example, type in Southwest Airlines and ticker).
Of course, the ticker symbol will only work for public
companies and in certain online databases. If you must search
using the company name, include all possible variations of
spelling and omit designations such as “company,” “Inc.,” or
“LLC.” If you retrieve thousands of hits, add terms describing the
company’s line of business, its location, or names of executives.
Under some circumstances, compiling a basic company
profile can resemble putting together a jigsaw puzzle. As you
work through a research project, do not hesitate to contact your
client when something surprises or confuses you. When you find
that the XYZ Company manufactures feather dusters and your
client told you that it made furniture, you need to discuss what
you have found. Verify that all the other information you have is
correct, and then check with your client. What was your client’s
source of information? Do you have the correct XYZ Company?
Your client may have simply failed to mention that the company
made furniture until two years ago, when it switched to feather
dusters.
The Syntax of Searching
There are two ways to construct a search statement: natural language or Boolean logic. Which one you select depends on the
nature of your question and on the search engine you will be
using. Regardless of how you will be performing the search, your
search question will be clearer to both you and your client if it is
stated in an unambiguous and concise statement. Develop a full
sentence, not just keywords. A sentence indicates the relationship
between the keywords, a critical element in developing a search
22
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 23 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
strategy and in evaluating what you retrieve. If your client gives
you keywords, write them down, and then ask the client to
describe what he or she needs in complete sentences.
NATURAL LANGUAGE. A natural language search engine should
allow you to enter the sentence that defines your search. Search
engines for the free Web use sophisticated algorithms to determine what words in a search statement are important, what possible synonyms exist for those words, and which of the thousands
of potential documents on the Web contain information related
to the search statement. The result of such a Web search is a list
of sites ranked by relevance. The sites with the best information,
as calculated by the search engine, are listed at the top. If the
search engine is operating properly, you should need to review
only a page or two of sites, not the thousands that are actually
retrieved by a search.
Of course, a natural language search does not exactly work
the way people speak. Most search engines ignore prepositions,
conjunctions, and other small words such as “how” and “why”
that may be key elements in your search statement. You may be
able to force the search engine to see a preposition by using a
plus sign (+) before each important word, but this sometimes
makes the search engine place too much emphasis on these
connector words and so can skew the results. As a general rule,
your search statement should contain all the significant words
from your research question. Word order does have an impact, so
place the most important concepts at the beginning of your
search statement.
One of the weaknesses of natural language search engines is
that they do not allow you to include synonyms in your search
statement. These search engines assume that you want
documents that contain all of the words in the search statement,
and this can limit your search. If, for instance, you are not sure
whether one company’s combination with another would be
described as a “merger” or a “takeover” or an “acquisition,” you
must still select only one for your search statement. Let’s say you
are looking for information on the formation of ExxonMobil.
You could enter exxon mobil takeover. The search engine is
supposed to know that “merger” and “takeover” are closely
related terms and search for both of them. However, in
determining relevancy, greater weight may be assigned to the
term you use. If you do not get the results that you expect, you
must redo the search using an alternate term.
23
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 24 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Let’s look at a sample search that shows how different terms
and word order affect a search on Google (see Figure 1-3). The
client wants to know why the proposed acquisition of software
company Intuit by Microsoft was never completed. The client is not
sure when the acquisition was first proposed. Search strategy A used
the search phrase Microsoft Intuit takeover. Search strategy B
substituted “acquire” for “takeover” and was more productive. It
retrieved an article in the Washington Post (see result number six in
Figure 1-3) that provided details on the proposed acquisition, on
the Justice Department suit against Microsoft, and on the reasons
given by Microsoft for abandoning the acquisition. Search strategy B
also retrieved another valuable resource, “The Microsoft-Intuit
Merger: Part 2,” part of a lengthy white paper on the proposed
merger (see result number one). Although other sections of the
same paper were retrieved by other search strategies, only Part 2
really answers the question. In addition, it provides biographical
details on the author and the date the paper was written, so this
paper could be very useful to the client.
Search strategy C used the word “acquisition.” Strategy D
reversed the order of the terms, placing “Intuit” before
“Microsoft.” Both strategies produced fair results, but neither
retrieved the article from the Washington Post or Part 2 of the
white paper. None of the search strategies were perfect. For
instance, many of the items retrieved in all four searches referred
to the Justice Department suit filed against Microsoft in 1999,
rather than the 1995 action related to Intuit. Adding “1995” to
the search term had little effect.
Conducting the same search on two other search engines, Teoma
(http://www.teoma.com) and AlltheWeb (http://www.alltheweb.com),
yielded different results. Search strategy B on Teoma retrieved “The
Microsoft-Intuit Merger: Part 2” as the top hit, but not the article from
the Washington Post. None of the strategies retrieved useful
information on AlltheWeb.
There are several possible reasons you might fail to find
useful material through a Web search engine:
You did not use the right combination of search terms.
You did not use the search terms in the correct order.
You did not use the right search engine.
None of the search engines crawled the site with the information you need. (The process the search engines employ to
find and index Web sites is called crawling; search engines do
not all crawl the same sites.)
5. The information is not available on the free Web.
1.
2.
3.
4.
24
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 25 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
When you have exhausted the resources of the free Web,
your alternative is an online database service.
Figure 1-3. Searching Google (Partial Results)
Search strategy A: microsoft intuit takeover
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
MSBC NewsSource
... the US Justice Department’s repeated investigations of his company, especially
the 1995 block of a $2 billion Intuit takeover. Analysts say that if Microsoft ...
www.msboycott.com/news/97_10_06.shtml -14k - Cached - Similar pages
I’m also writing a book. I have the page numbers done.
... wrapping paper, Lotus employees are very optimistic about the takeover. ...
reason why the Justice Department may have nixed the Microsoft-Intuit deal. ...
extlab1.entnem.ufl.edu/IH8PCs/vol2/V2N21.html 21k - Cached - Similar pages
Re: Intuit/Quicken Force Users to Internet & MS Internet Explorer ...
LAMLaw.com http://www.lamlaw.com/ (web site reviews Microsoft ...
Re: Intuit/Quicken Force Users to Internet & MS ... bids), Robert Reese
(06/15/99). US West takeover ... legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/antitrust/
msg01748.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
Business Week Online/Management
... Wendell’s résumé includes serving as an adviser to Intuit—the subject of an
aborted takeover by Microsoft in 1995, which was scuttled after federal ...
www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/news/date/9810/e981026.htm -19k - Cached Similar pages
Consumers win as AOL-Microsoft talks collapse
... He compares the collapse of the talks to Microsoft’s thwarted 1995 takeover
of Intuit. The result: consumer-friendly competition ... www.usatoday.com/life/
cyber/tech/2001-06-18-aol-microsoft-talks-collapse.htm - 31k - Oct. 20, 2002 Cached - Similar pages
c’t 7/95, S. 14: Markt - [ Translate this page ]
... IBM hat rechtliche Schritte eingeleitet, um “Anti-Takeover”-Vorkehrungen
des Lotus-Vorstands auszuschalten. ... Microsoft kann Intuit nicht übernehmen.
... www.heise.de/ct/95/07/014/ - 18k - Oct. 20, 2002 - Cached - Similar pages
News Briefs, part 1
... In a 14-page complaint filed in US District Court in San Francisco, the Justice
Department said a Microsoft takeover of Intuit - whose Quicken program
controls ... www-tech.mit.edu/V115/N21/briefs1.21w.html - 6k - Cached Similar pages
Washingtonpost.com: WashTech
... When the government began looking at Microsoft’s proposed takeover of
Intuit, the on-line companies submitted papers outlining their concerns about
the ... www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/
stories/1995/probe060995.htm - Similar pages...
Search strategy B: microsoft intuit acquire
1.
... In 1994, Microsoft made a $1.5 billion offer to acquire Intuit (an amount that
would rise to $2 billion) and buy its way into dominance of the personal finance
... www.netaction.org/msoft/finance/part2.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
25
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 26 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1995 DOJ Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft / Intuit... 5. Microsoft has
agreed to acquire Intuit for what, as of Monday, April 24, 1995 would exceed
$2 billion in Microsoft stock, more than twice Intuit’s ... www.lectlaw.com/files/
ant08.htm - 34k - Cached - Similar pages
Corporate Releases
... Software, 01/29/97, Intuit To Acquire Additional Japanese Company, 01/16/97,
Intuit, Microsoft And Checkfree Create Open Financial Exchange, ...
www.intuit.com/company/investors/corporate_releases/ - 68k - Oct. 20, 2002 Cached - Similar pages
Intuit Press Releases - 1997
... 29, Intuit To Acquire Additional Japanese Company. January 27, Intuit Makes
Tax Preparation Software Available Free On The Internet. January 16, Intuit,
Microsoft ... www.intuit.com/company/press_releases/1997/ - 51k - Oct. 20,
2002 - Cached - Similar pages
Washingtonpost.com: WashTech
... The Department of Justice yesterday filed suit to block software giant
Microsoft Corp.’s $2 billion bid to acquire Intuit Inc., the world’s leading maker
of ... www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/stories/
1995/quicken042895.htm - Similar pages
Washingtonpost.com: WashTech
... Microsoft officials said they decided Friday to abandon their plans to
pay about $2 billion to acquire Intuit, based in Menlo Park, Calif. ...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/microsoft/stories/1995/
intuit052195.htm - Similar pages . . .
Search strategy C: microsoft intuit acquisition
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
26
The Microsoft-Intuit Merger: Part 1
... the successes of the Justice Department’s previous actions against Microsoft,
particularly its 1994–95 intervention against Microsoft’s acquisition of Intuit ...
www.netaction.org/msoft/finance/part1.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
The Microsoft-Intuit Merger: Part 4
... controlling such standards, which would regulate much of electronic exchange
on the net, was the original goal of Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Intuit, ...
www.netaction.org/msoft/finance/part4.html - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.netaction.org ]
1995 DOJ Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft / Intuit
... its Microsoft Money business assets but not enough to allow it to compete
anywhere near the level provided by Microsoft before the proposed Intuit acquisition. ... www.lectlaw.com/files/ant08.htm - 34k - Cached - Similar pages
Buying Intuit
... The attempted Intuit acquisition can be likened to a child playing a game of
chess. Microsoft is playing many games simultaneously, and each game represents a ... www-cse.stanford.edu/classes/cs201/projects-95-96/corporatemonopolies/dangers_quicken.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
NetBank in Microsoft, Intuit Software Marketing Pacts
... NetBank has been working with both Intuit and ... In May, NetBank signed an
agreement with another Microsoft unit ... agreements come following a string of
acquisition ... www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/1438601 - 54k - CachedSimilar pages ...
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 27 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
Search strategy D: intuit acquisition microsoft
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Microsoft-Intuit Merger: Part 1
... the successes of the Justice Department’s previous actions against Microsoft,
particularly its 1994-95 intervention against Microsoft’s acquisition of Intuit ...
www.netaction.org/msoft/finance/part1.html - 8k - Cached - Similar pages
Buying Intuit
... The attempted Intuit acquisition can be likened to a child playing a game of
chess. Microsoft is playing many games simultaneously, and each game
represents a ... www-cse.stanford.edu/classes/cs201/projects-95-96/
corporate-monopolies/dangers_quicken.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages
1995 DOJ Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft / Intuit
... Before the acquisition, Microsoft and Intuit had independent plans to compete
in the field of electronic commerce, starting with enhancement of their PF ...
www.lectlaw.com/files/ant08.htm - 34k - Cached - Similar pages
Novell/WP Plans to Make Money on Money
Novell/WordPerfect Plans to Make Money on Money. November 1994. Part of
the fall out from the Microsoft acquisition of Intuit, was a need for Microsoft to
divest ... www.wohl.com/g0042.htm - 7k - Cached - Similar pages
#241 Justice Department Files Antitrust Suit Challenge
... not be enough to prevent the anticompetitive effects of the Intuit acquisition
since Novell could not be as effective a competitor with Money as was
Microsoft. ... www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/Pre_96/April95/241.txt.html - 6k - CachedSimilar pages ...
Reprinted with the permission of Google, Inc.
BOOLEAN LOGIC. The basic commands of Boolean logic, developed by nineteenth-century mathematician George Boole, are
AND, OR, and NOT. When two search terms are linked with
AND, the records retrieved must contain both terms. When they
are linked with OR, the search will retrieve records containing
either term. NOT is rarely used because it often eliminates useful
items. For example, if you search for “Microsoft AND Intuit NOT
Netscape” you will miss articles about the proposed Microsoft
purchase of Intuit that mention Netscape in passing.
Many searches will not require the use of Boolean
commands. Although some Web search engines such as Altavista
(http://www.altavista.com) provide an advanced search page that
allows you to use them, natural language will often be a better
choice. According to Chris Sherman, coauthor of The Invisible
Web, “’taking control’ of a search using Boolean operators can
actually diminish the quality of results [from Web search
engines], because using advanced operators often overrides all of
the other factors used to calculate relevance.”14
14. Gary Price, “About Wise Searching from Searchwise’s and About.Com’s Chris
Sherman,” Searcher 8, no. 7 (July/August 2000): 12–24.
27
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 28 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
However, Boolean commands do provide precise retrieval
when used in online database services. Although most services
now provide more user-friendly interfaces, they were designed
to be searched with Boolean commands. By using a
combination of Boolean commands, you can construct a single
search strategy that includes multiple synonyms and complex
concepts. For instance, parentheses can be used when a single
search statement contains both OR and AND. As shown in the
example below, parentheses force the system to search first for
the synonyms and then limit the items retrieved to those that
also include the other terms. And when AND and OR are
combined with wildcards, they provide a succinct and powerful
search strategy. Wildcards are special characters, generally an
asterisk (*) or a question mark (?), that represent other
characters. An asterisk represents any number of other
characters, and a question mark represents a single character.
Using wildcards (also called truncation) allows you to search for
all words that include the characters you specify. Thus the
search term acqui* in the example below will retrieve items
including “acquisition,” “acquisitions,” “acquire,” “acquiring,”
and so on.
microsoft AND intuit AND (acqui* OR purchas* OR takeover OR
buy) AND (fail* OR drop* OR abandon* OR withdr*)
Another search tool is the proximity command. When online
databases were first developed in the 1970s, records were
extremely brief, often containing only an article title, author,
publication data, and subject terms. In this environment, AND
and OR were adequate search commands. But when
technological advances allowed database producers to include
the complete text of articles and make the entire text searchable,
more sophisticated search commands were needed. Using AND
between two search terms ensures that both terms will be found
in an article, but it does not ensure that there will be a direct
relationship between the terms. Proximity commands allow the
searcher to specify the word order and the number of words that
can occur between the search terms. Table 1-1 shows the syntax
for proximity commands and truncation for several online
database services.
28
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 29 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
Table 1-1. Truncation and Proximity Commands
ONLINE
DATABASE
SERVICE
TRUNCATION LIMITED
COMMAND
TRUNCATION
COMMAND
CHARACTER PROXIMITY PROXIMITY
REPLACEMENT COMMAND WITH WORD
COMMAND
ORDER
COMMAND
Dialog
?
?
(#N)
(#W)
None
w#
N#
?
NEAR#
None
?
N#
ADJ#
W/#
Put phrase in
double
*** (for up
to as many
characters as
there are
asterisks)
??? (for up
to as many
characters as
there are
question
marks)
None
*
W/#
PRE/#
?
W/#
P/#
??? (for up
to as many
characters as
there are
question
marks)
EBSCOhost Related terms None
check box
Factiva
*
$#
Gale/
*
InfoTrac
quotes
LexisNexis !
LIVEDGAR *
Research
Bank
*
?
None
W#None
# stands for a number.
The sample search statement above would thus be modified
for use in each of these online database services. The revised
search statement below uses the LexisNexis command syntax:
microsoft w/15 (acqui! or purchas! or takeover or buy) w/15 intuit
w/30 (fail! or drop! or abandon! or withdr!)
Using Boolean search statements allows the researcher much
greater control over the search process than does natural
language. But remember that some online database services, like
Web search engines, ignore certain words. Most provide lists of
their “stop words,” those words that cannot be used as search
terms. These can include the Boolean commands AND, OR, and
NOT, as well as other words that are so common they would
significantly slow the search process. Some services, such as
29
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 30 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Factiva and LIVEDGAR,15 allow you to place Boolean commands
in quotes to make them searchable (for example, “not for
profit”); other databases have no other stop words at all.
Also keep in mind that the strength of your search statement
depends in part on your knowledge of the industry. In the
previous example, one might think that “declined” would be a
useful synonym for “failed.” However, including it would likely
retrieve articles related to stock prices rather than the failure of
the acquisition. Knowing the terms and buzzwords used in the
target industry will help you produce the most effective search
statement.
The Joy of Indexing: Using the Advanced Search Functions of
Online Database Services
No one has time to read through hundreds of articles to find the
one that provides the critical details. So online database services
have developed mechanisms for dealing with overwhelming
amounts of information. Taking advantage of indexing helps
zero in on the most relevant documents.
The easiest way to focus your search is to narrow the time
frame. Take our Microsoft/Intuit merger example. The
acquisition was called off in 1995. To eliminate articles on later
dealings between Microsoft and the Justice Department, we can
restrict the search to the period between 1990 and 1996. Keep in
mind that most Web search engines base dates on when the
document was crawled, or indexed, by the search engine,
whereas online database services base dates on the actual
publication date of the document.
Most online database services also provide company name
and subject indexing tools. The database services index, or
categorize, all records using a combination of linguistic analysis
programs and human analysts. Searching with index terms thus
increases both the number of articles retrieved and their
relevancy. Using the index term Mergers & Acquisitions, for
example, ensures that all articles in which merger/acquisition
activity is a significant focus are retrieved, regardless of the
particular terms used. It also limits the articles retrieved to those
15. LIVEDGAR, produced by Global Securities Information, Inc., http://www.gsionline.com,
provides access to EDGAR filings; SEC No-Action Letters; Non-EDGAR Paper Submitted
Filings; SEC regulatory content, releases, speeches, enforcement actions, and more than
twenty-six thousand non-U.S. registered offerings.
30
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 31 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
that include substantive information on a merger or acquisition.
Likewise, using company name indexing also limits the
documents retrieved to those that contain more than a passing
mention of a company.
Let’s compare date limitation to indexing in our Microsoft/
Intuit search using LexisNexis. When the years searched are
limited to 1990–1996, the first article in the list retrieved
discusses how the Internet has changed the way software is sold.
The failure of the Microsoft acquisition of Intuit is mentioned,
but it is not the focus of the article. When we add the index term
Mergers & Acquisitions to the existing search statement, that article
and several hundred like it are eliminated. And indexing by
company name by adding Microsoft Corp. and Intuit, Inc.
eliminates an article on Apple Computer that mentions only in
passing Microsoft’s attempt to buy Intuit. The final search
statement (see Figure 1-4) produces only fifty-three hits. The first
item discusses the individuals involved in the Microsoft decision,
provides a detailed time line, and suggests why Microsoft may
have dropped the acquisition.
Figure 1-4. Searching LexisNexis with Index Terms (Partial Results)
Search strategy: microsoft w/15 (acqui! or purchas! or takeover or buy)
w/15 intuit w/30 (fail! or drop! or abandon! or withdr!) and MICROSOFT
CORP. and INTUIT, INC. and MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Date searched: 1/1/1990–1/1/1996
LexisNexis News Library - List format
1. The New York Times, May 22, 1995, Monday, Late Edition - Final, Bill Gates,
Section D; Page 1; Column 2; Business/Financial Desk, 1155 words, Gates, the
Pragmatist, Walked Away, By STEVE LOHR
2. The Toronto Star, May 22, 1995, Monday, HOME DELIVERY TWO, BUSINESS;
Pg. E2, 515 words, Failed deal likely to hit Intuit Analysts expect price to drop
after Microsoft ends takeover bid, (Reuter), SAN FRANCISCO
3. Upside, February 1995, Vol. 7, No. 2 Pg. 52-67; ISSN: 1052-0341; CODEN:
TLPNAS, 9001 words, Why Microsoft must be stopped, Reback, Gary L,
00976542
4. THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, May 21, 1995, Sunday, HOME FINAL EDITION, NEWS; Pg. 4A, 704 words, Microsoft drops Intuit acquisition bid, New
York Times News Service, SAN FRANCISCO
5. The Toronto Star, May 22, 1995, Monday, FINAL EDITION, BUSINESS; Pg. E2,
507 words, Failed deal likely to hit Intuit Analysts expect price to drop after
Microsoft ends takeover bid, REUTER), SAN FRANCISCO . . .
Reprinted with the permission of LexisNexis.
31
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 32 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Incorporating index terms into a search statement is quite
simple with most online database services. Generally the
advanced search option includes drop-down lists of index terms
or allows the user to search for index term suggestions that can
be easily added to an existing search statement. Many online
database services also let you to sort search results by date or by
relevancy. Sorting by date is useful if your client needs the most
recent information available (the default date sort puts the most
recent article at the top of the list) or if you need to track the
development of a story. Relevancy is useful if there are a large
number of documents and the story is not one that developed
slowly over a long period of time.
Verifying Content
Even the perfect search statement will be ineffective if you are not
searching the correct sources. Some databases will simply not have
what you are looking for. For example, if you need details on
Champlin Petroleum’s expansion of their Corpus Christi plant in
1983, you need to know which databases go back that far: Although
Oil and Gas Journal is included in the Energy publications on
Factiva, coverage there did not begin until 1989; LexisNexis, on
the other hand, includes the journal’s full text from 1978. The
1983 volumes of Hydrocarbon Processing are not available in full in
any database, although abstracts are available in the Gale Group
PROMT16 database on Dialog. So, your best strategy would be to
search LexisNexis first and then go to PROMT for additional information. Making sure that the publications you want to search are
included when you select a database or publication category can be
a challenge. Some hazards to keep in mind include:
•
•
•
Some databases include only selected full-text articles from a
publication, while others include all articles in full.
Individual publications and entire databases are frequently
removed from online database services. Sometimes the older
issues of a publication remain, and in other cases the publication disappears completely.
Graphics are often not included in online database services.
Text with a box around it, such as the mortgage rates listing
in the newspaper, may be considered a graphic.
16. Gale Group PROMT is a multiple-industry database that provides broad, international
coverage of companies, products, markets, and applied technologies for all industries
from 1972 to the present.
32
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 33 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
•
•
•
•
•
•
The full text of an article that comprises a list of companies
may not be included in a database even though the citation
for the article is. The database record for Fortune Magazine’s
Global 500 may include the introductory text but not the list
of companies.
Many newspapers and magazines have removed articles by
freelance writers from online database services in response to
the Tasini decision.17
Some syndicated columns may not be included in online
database services.
Only material from the most recent three months of the New
York Times is available on any service other than LexisNexis.
The time between publication of an article and its availability
in an online database service ranges from immediately or better (tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal is available this afternoon
on Factiva) to several months.
An online database service may include only one edition of a
publication. For instance, Business Week has an Industrial Edition that includes articles not found in the regular edition.
Some publications also offer online versions that differ from
their print editions. Databases don’t always cover all editions.
If you regularly search specific publications, an invaluable
source is Fulltext Sources Online (FSO),18 published by Information
Today. It lists both the databases and online database services
that include any specific publication, along with the dates of
inclusion and update schedule. You can check the online
availability of key industry and business publications on which
you know your clients rely. That will help you determine which
online database services are essential. For instance, if you must
have access to the Wall Street Journal, you can use FSO to find out
that you will need to subscribe to either the Wall Street Journal
Online19 or Factiva. Depending on your industry, there may be
several online database services that include all the key
17. In Tasini et al. vs. the New York Times et al., the courts ruled that it is a violation of
copyright for a publisher to put articles written by a freelance writer online without
explicit written permission.
18. Fulltext Sources Online, at http://www.fso-online.com, is a directory of periodicals
accessible online in full text through more than twenty-five aggregators. FSO is published
twice each year, in January and July, and lists over eighteen thousand newspapers,
journals, magazines, newsletters, newswires, and transcripts.
19. Available by subscription at http://www.wsj.com, the Wall Street Journal Online provides
articles from the daily the Wall Street Journal as well as searchable archives containing issues
from the last fifteen years.
33
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 34 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
publications you’ll need. FSO can help you decide which one to
start with by indicating how soon after publication articles are
available.
PRIMARY PORTALS: WHICH SERVICES DO YOU
REALLY NEED?
Selecting the services you need can be a daunting task. There are
a number of special purpose online database services that provide partic u l a r t y p e s of company information. Research Bank 20
and Multex21 both supply reports from Wall Street analysts and
market research companies. LIVEDGAR provides information
from SEC filings. Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage22 focuses on
stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. There are also online database
services that offer a wide range of information, incorporating
many of the special purpose services. Services such as Dialog, Factiva, and LexisNexis, known as aggregators, all provide access to
databases produced by D&B and to the data available from
Research Bank. In some cases, special-purpose online database
services incorporate information from the aggregators. For
instance Hoover’s, which provides company profiles, includes
selected news articles from Factiva. You will need to analyze pricing and interface options as well as take a close look at content in
order to select the service or services that will best meet your
information needs.
Access Options
There are a number of different options for accessing online
database services. Some services are available at no cost at public
libraries. You can also set up a pay-as-you-go account with a credit
card, or a transactional account where you are charged for each
20. Research Bank Web, at http://www.investext.com, is a product of Thomson Financial’s
Investment Banking/Capital Markets group. It provides access to research from more
than 620 investment banks, brokerage houses, and research firms worldwide, as well as
offering primary market research and an online collection of trade association research.
21. Multex, at http://www.multex.com, provides broker research, estimates, company
fundamental data, independent market research, SEC filings, market data, and other
third-party information.
22. Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage is a subscription-based service that provides
electronic access to twelve S&P products, including Stock Reports, Stock Guide, Dividend
Record, Earnings Guide, Bond Guide, Corporation Records, Mutual Fund Reports, Security Dealers
of North America, Register of Corporations, Industry Surveys, Investment Review, and Outlook.
34
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 35 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
use. Or you can buy a subscription. Some services offer several
options. Which access option you select will depend on how critical the service is to your information needs, how much the service
will be used, and who within your organization will use it.
PUBLIC ACCESS. Many public libraries now offer remote access
to online database services. Usually a library card number is
required. Check the database service Web site for a list of participating libraries in your area. Some may require that you visit the
library and provide proof that you are a resident of the city or
other jurisdiction that funds the library. Others may allow you to
sign up for a card online. If you are just beginning to do company
research, if you are not sure what publications and databases you
will need, and if you have no idea how much research you will
actually do, using the databases available through the library is an
excellent option.
Public libraries generally provide access to three types of
online database services that can be used for company research:
directory databases, company information databases, and
periodical databases. Directory databases are useful for verifying
a company’s name and generating lists of companies that meet
criteria such as location and line of business. ReferenceUSA,23 also
known as American Business Directory, from InfoUSA, is the
directory most commonly available at public libraries. It provides
company name, contact information, SIC24 and/or NAICS25
codes, number of employees, annual sales, and names of
executives. The information in directory databases is also
available through aggregators and some focused services such as
Hoover’s. When used through the public library, the directory
databases often allow downloading of company information in a
spreadsheet format, which is frequently not an option when using
an aggregator. However, they may limit the number of records
that can be downloaded in one search to as few as ten.
The company information database most often available
through public libraries is the Gale/InfoTrac Business &
Company Resource Center, which is also available on a
23. ReferenceUSA contains information on nearly 12 million U.S. businesses and
102 million U.S. residents (90 million U.S. households).
24. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a numeric classification scheme for
industries first developed in the 1938. It was replaced in 1997 by NAICS.
25. NAICS, the North American Industry Classification System, was developed jointly by
the United States, Canada, and Mexico to provide new comparability in statistics about
business activity across North America.
35
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 36 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
subscription basis from Dialog as Dialog Company Profiles. This
database pulls information from a number of sources to provide
company and industry overviews, financial data on public
companies, company histories, product lists, and articles from
trade publications. A few libraries also provide access to Mergent
Online and Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage.
The most widely available periodical database services are
InfoTrac and EBSCO Host. Some libraries provide access to
periodicals through ProQuest,26 Wilsonline,27 and FirstSearch.28
All of these services differ from Dialog, Factiva, and LexisNexis in
that they are targeted at public and college libraries. They offer
libraries the option to select any of several groups of business and
trade publications and they provide simple search interfaces.
Accessing online databases through the public library has two
significant advantages: no cost and the absence of contracts.
There are also significant disadvantages:
•
•
•
•
Uncertain long-term access. Libraries constantly evaluate their
electronic collections based on usage and budgetary considerations. Portions or all of an online database service may be
eliminated without notice.
Content variability. Because vendors provide a number of
packages to libraries, you may have difficulty determining
what publications are covered by a service at your library.
Limited interface options. Most public libraries provide only the
simplest of interfaces. Although these basic interfaces may be
suitable for very simple searches, as you become more experienced you may want the flexibility and power of an advanced
interface.
Technical difficulties. Public libraries periodically have network
problems and unresolved technical issues with vendors. In
some cases their contracts may limit the number of concurrent users for a particular online database service. When you
are unable to connect to a service through the library, your
only option is to try again later.
26. ProQuest, at http://www.umi.com/proquest, is a product of UMI and is available
primarily in public and university libraries. It provides access to periodicals and
newspapers, including theWall Street Journal.
27. Wilsonline provides access to over forty databases from the H.W. Wilson Company,
including Business Periodicals and the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature.
28. FirstSearch, from OCLC, provides access to over seventy databases. Most provide only
article source information and abstracts rather than the full text of articles.
36
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 37 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
•
Lack of training. The major online database services provide a
variety of training opportunities to customers. This training
explains the resources available, teaches advanced search
techniques, and describes ways to take advantage of the information available. Unless you have an account with a service,
you will not have access to their training.
CREDIT CARD ACCOUNTS. Several of the online database services allow pay-as-you-go research with a credit card. As with
access through a public library, credit card access does not entitle
you to training, and interface options are limited. Using a credit
card is reasonable if you know that an article you need is available
on a service for which you do not have an account. In general the
credit card option basically allows you to search for free; your
card is only charged when you view a record.
You should not attempt a complex search on an unfamiliar
service. Charges can mount quickly when an imprecise search
strategy yields dozens of potential articles. If you have an unusual
request and you believe the information is available through an
online database service for which you do not have an account, a
good option is to contact the Association of Independent
Information Professionals (AIIP).29 The AIIP Referral Program
can provide the name of an experienced researcher who
subscribes to the online database service in question and knows
how to search it. Although you will pay for the researcher’s time,
together you will be sure to find the pertinent information.
TRANSACTIONAL ACCOUNTS. If you are the only researcher in
your organization, transactional accounts should be your initial
choice if they are available from the online database services you
need. With the exception of an account set-up fee for some services, you pay only when you use the service. In general, fees are
closely related to the amount of information you retrieve.
Searches that do not yield results are free or cost very little. Many
services allow you to enter a client name or number so that your
invoice indicates the cost per project, making it easy to charge
the cost of research to the appropriate project or department.
29. Members of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (http://
www.aiip.org) own firms providing such information-related services as online and manual
research, document delivery, database design, library support, consulting, writing, and
publishing.
37
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 38 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
When you have established an account, you will receive
regular updates on changes and enhancements to the service,
and you will be entitled to group and/or individual training.
Many of the online database services have account
representatives with research experience who show customers
how to search the services effectively. With a transactional
account, you usually have access to all the interfaces available
from the vendor so that you can migrate to a more advanced and
flexible interface as your expertise increases.
SUBSCRIPTIONS. If several individuals in your organization use a
particular online database service or if you find that your own
usage is substantial, you should consider an annual subscription.
Some services are available by subscription only. Subscriptions
offer several advantages over transactional accounts:
•
•
•
Predictable costs. With a subscription you can establish a budget
for information services; with transactional accounts your
expenditures may vary widely from month to month.
The freedom to err. If you have a transactional account, downloading documents in the wrong format or selecting the
wrong documents can incur substantial costs. With a subscription, your monthly or annual payments are unaffected
by usage. Since there are no connect time or processing time
charges with a subscription, you can experiment with your
search strategies without worrying about costs.
Customization. Several of the online database services offer
sophisticated tools that allow you to customize what users see
when they log on to the service, including industry news and
predefined searches.
The disadvantage of a subscription is the substantial initial
payment, which is wasted if you do not use the service as much as
you anticipated.
If there is any uncertainly about which service will satisfy the
majority of your information needs, start with a transactional or
credit card account if one is available. If a subscription-only
service such as Hoover’s, Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage, or
Mergent Online appears to be the best option, see if you can
negotiate a three- to six-month subscription rather than a full
year. Once you are ready to purchase a subscription to any
service, you should plan on negotiating a contract that fits your
38
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 39 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
needs. If you are uncomfortable or inexperienced with
negotiating with vendors, ask for assistance from someone in
your purchasing department.
The first step in successful negotiating is to know exactly
what you need. Every service has advantages and disadvantages,
and knowing how these conform to your needs will help you
avoid redundancy and pick the best options. If your public library
introduces access to the Gale/InfoTrac Business & Company
Resource Center, for instance, you may decide to cancel your
subscription to the Company Dossier from Nexis.com to reduce
costs. If other people in your organization will need access to an
online database service, you may wish to combine a subscription
to one service that is available to individuals in several
departments with one or more transactional accounts that only
you use. This would enable employees to answer routine
questions themselves but would provide you with the resources
needed to conduct in-depth research.
Understand the alternatives: Think carefully about how and
how much you will use the service before you decide. Compare
the options. For example, the base subscription price for up to
five users of Factiva is $12,000 per year. For the same amount you
could have five transactional accounts with Factiva, and each
researcher could download 194 documents per month. Certainly
the subscription allows extensive customization, distribution of
selected news, and easy tracking of customers and competitors.
But if you use Factiva primarily to handle individual research
projects and you and your colleagues would not retrieve more
than 970 documents each month, the transactional accounts are
a better choice.
Focus on what you must have: Although each online database
service has its own unique features and sources, many of the same
capabilities and sources are also available from other services.
Many vendors slice their service offerings several ways to
accommodate the specific needs of their customers. Encourage
the vendor to present options that address your minimum
requirements; you can always add features and sources later if
you wish. The same goes if you are negotiating a subscription for
multiple users. Unless there are already several experienced
researchers in your organization, usage will grow slowly, and
renegotiating the subscription to increase the number of users
later will not be difficult.
39
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 40 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Everything is negotiable: Most sales representatives have
flexibility in quoting a price. Inquire about introductory pricing,
specials, and end-of-the-year or quarterly discounts. Purchasing
an online database service subscription is similar to buying a car.
Don’t be afraid to send your representative back to the sales
manager for a better price. Once you have purchased a
subscription, take advantage of all the training and other
assistance the vendor offers. The more you and your colleagues
use the service, the more value you receive from your investment.
Interface Choices
The interface is what you see when you log on to the online database
service. It controls the commands you use to search the databases
and the format of the information you retrieve. Most Web-based
interfaces provide forms to be filled in with your selections and preferences, and source selection is accomplished through pull-down
lists or from a series of menus. The search interfaces of the online
database services are all quite similar. In evaluating the available
interfaces, you should consider the level of expertise of the searchers
and the flexibility of output formats.
One thing to consider is how likely you and your colleagues
are to take the available training. In many organizations, those
who use online database services are reluctant to take the time to
attend training sessions. If this is the case at your organization,
you must select a service with an extremely intuitive interface or it
will not be used. If, however, the best service for you is difficult to
use and no one is likely to take the training, you will need to
identify key individuals who can be trained as searchers, rather
than making access to the service more generally available.
Another factor is frequency of use. If some people will use
the service only infrequently, you will want an interface that can
produce reasonable results from extremely simple searches. A
good example of such an interface is Dialog1. To search for
articles on companies in Dialog1, the searcher selects the
Business Intelligence Channel, then Company, then Company
News. The searcher is then presented with two boxes, one for the
company name and another for a keyword, and drop-down lists
from which to select a date range. The result is a list of article
titles with publication dates and the cost of retrieval of the
complete text for those on transactional accounts. No
40
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 41 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
understanding of Boolean logic is required. The difficult task of
selecting the appropriate databases to search is performed
through menu selections.
Keep in mind that a simple interface will also have its
limitations. There is no way to verify the spelling of a company
name. If the name is entered incorrectly, the search may very well
be fruitless and the searcher may assume that no articles are
available. Also, a simple interface provides few options for
limiting your search. If a company is large and in the news
frequently, searching with a single keyword may produce
unmanageable results (as with a search for Microsoft and lawsuit?
from 2001–2002, which retrieves 1,536 articles). If you select a
simple interface for others in your organization, be sure that a
more flexible interface is available for your use as your expertise
increases. When you establish an account with Dialog you can use
any of the available search interfaces. DialogWeb and
DialogClassic provide the full power of the command language
for sophisticated searching.
Not all interfaces provide access to all databases. With the
Dialog interfaces, for one, particular care must be exercised to be
certain that the databases you need are included in the group
you are searching. For instance, if you use Dialog1 and select
Business Intelligence from the menu, then Company, then
Company News, you will search four databases. If you use
DialogSelect and choose Business, then Business News, then
Company News, then By Company Name, you will search eight
databases. On DialogWeb you will search eight databases as well,
but you will have the ability to select from a list of thirty-seven
databases with the Dynamic Search option. So when you’ve
identified a key resource for your work, make sure the interface
used by most of the searchers in your organization includes that
resource.
Further, although an individual database may be available on
several online database services, not all services will provide
access to the same amount of data from that database. For
instance, the Standard & Poor’s database on LexisNexis has twice
the number of companies as the Standard & Poor’s database on
Dialog.30 Be sure that the online database service you choose
provides the full version of documents from your key resources.
30. Marsha L. Fulton, et al., “Company Directories: Past, Present, and Future,” Searcher 10,
no. 8 (September 2002): 39–41.
41
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 42 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
An understanding of how your clients will use the
information you provide can be important in selecting an
interface. All online database services provide output in a file
format that is easily opened by word-processing software and
requires little manipulation. Not all interfaces, however, provide
output in spreadsheet format, even for lists of companies. (Of all
the Dialog interfaces, only DialogClassic and the Command
Search interface for DialogWeb could generate the sample report
shown in Figure 1-1.) If your clients want to analyze financial
reports using spreadsheet software, you will need the ability to
download the reports in a format that can be easily imported into
a spreadsheet. Verify that the interface will allow you to specify
the fields you want from the records and that it provides an
output format that is compatible with the spreadsheet software
you use. Mergent Online and Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage
include this function; Gale/InfoTrac Business & Company
Resource Center and Dialog Company Profiles do not.
Making the Choice
If you have determined that free Web searches and the resources
of your public library cannot meet your information needs, taking these few steps will give you the information you need to
choose a service provider:
1. Identify the types of information essential to your work (for
example, company balance sheets or lists of subsidiaries).
2. Identify essential publications and types of documents.
3. Identify the preferred format for delivery of the information.
4. Identify online database services that provide access to your
key information and publications. Use the Gale Directory of
Databases and Fulltext Sources Online. Both are available in the
reference sections of many public and university libraries.
5. Determine who will use the database services.
6. Estimate the frequency of searches and volume of information to be retrieved.
7. Estimate how often more than one searcher will need access
to a service at the same time.
8. Evaluate available interface choices for potential online database services.
9. Determine which services provide the best output formats.
10. Compare published prices for various access options for
selected services.
42
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 43 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
11. Determine the value of additional features provided by
subscriptions.
12. Open transactional accounts or negotiate subscriptions with
selected vendors.
Table 1-2 provides an overview of current options and prices
for several of the most popular online database services.
Once you’ve gathered all the essential information about the
various database services, only a few more steps are needed to
make your final choice. If you find that several online database
services may be able to provide access to your key information
sources, develop several sample questions that are typical of the
information needed by your clients. Ask the sales representative
from each service to perform searches on the sample questions
and provide you with sample output. Take notes on the search
process and compare the output. The ideal service will combine a
straightforward search strategy with highly relevant retrieval.
Some vendors supply free demonstration accounts, others
offer one- to three-month subscriptions. Take advantage of
whatever trial terms are available, even if they are not free. If
others in your organization will use the service, be sure that they
use it during the test period. If possible, watch them perform
searches and evaluate their ability to use the service.
ORGANIZING AND REPORTING RESEARCH RESULTS
When you have completed the research for a complex project,
your research results may include articles in a variety of formats,
reports in PDF, financial data in spreadsheets, Web pages in
HTML, and even pictures. This is your raw data; now you need to
put it in a format that your client can use. The report you deliver
to your client should include the information needed to answer
the research question or solve the problem, it should be in a format that your client can put to use with a minimum of reformatting, and it should look good.
43
44
$295 to establish account
+ $84 every 6 months
Document charges + up
to $13/hour search
processing fee based on
usage of 1–5 users
None
None
$69 annual fee +
$2.95/document from
Publications; cost of
reports varies
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
Dialog:
includes Dialog1,
DialogSelect, DialogWeb,
DialogClassic
Dialog Company Profiles
DialogPRO
Factiva
Mergent Online
with Annual Reports
with Company Archives
with Equity Portraits
with Factsheets
with Insider Trading
with Institutional Holdings
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
$295 to establish account
+ $84 each 6 months.
Document charges + up to
$13/hour search processing
fee based on usage
Table 1-2. Online Database Service Account Comparison
ONLINE DATABASE
TRANSACTIONAL
CREDIT CARD
SERVICE COST
ACCOUNT
ACCOUNT
1 user, base cost
Additional cost
Additional cost
Additional cost
Additional cost
Additional cost
Additional cost
1–5 users
1 user
Available only to companies
with sales of $50 million or
less; 1 user, 1 channel
(database grouping)
SUBSCRIPTION
PARAMETERS
$9,500
$5,495
$4,995
$6,995
$1,050
$2,100
$2,100
$12,000
$6,000
$1,200
Negotiated
ANNUAL
SUBSCRIPTION COST
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 44 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
None
$10 per logon,
$1.50/minute connected;
$0.05/data element
exported in
spreadsheet format
None
$9.99–$30.00 per
document page
Hoover’s Pro
LIVEDGAR
Nexis.com
Research Bank
none
$75–$250/week or
$30–$75/day or
$3–$12/document,
depending on
the sources selected
None
None
Table 1-2. Online Database Service Account Comparison (cont.)
ONLINE DATABASE
TRANSACTIONAL
CREDIT CARD
SERVICE COST
ACCOUNT
ACCOUNT
$1,995
Negotiated
ANNUAL
SUBSCRIPTION COST
Negotiated
1–2 users, News sources,
$7,200
Company & Financial sources,
Company Dossier
1–5 users
3-month trial, unlimited
users for $495
SUBSCRIPTION
PARAMETERS
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 45 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
45
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 46 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
Your first step will be to select the data to include in your
report. Some of your data may be redundant; your task is to select
the items that are most authoritative and that provide unique
insight. You might include a company press release on a new
product because it provides information on how the company
will position the product and a complete list of features. You
might also include an article from a business publication that
compares the product’s features to those of competing products
and analyzes the potential size of the market. But you might leave
out two other articles that contain no additional information.
To select what to include in your report, you will need to
assess your search results carefully. If you have retrieved financial
data, for instance, you may find that even basic revenue figures
vary from source to source. You will need to determine the
reasons for the variation, if possible, and select those figures that
are most accurate. If you are unable to account for the variation
you may need to include all the figures in your report, including
detailed information on the sources so that your client can make
the determination.
Once you have selected the documents to include in the
report, you will need to organize them in a logical fashion. If your
client has asked specific questions, you can group the documents
according to the questions they address, putting those documents
related to the most important questions at the beginning of the
report. If your client requested a detailed corporate profile, you
can look at the way company profiles provided by the online
database services are organized and follow that format.
Summaries and Analyses
Depending on the nature of the research request, you may either
provide an annotated table of contents or you may write a summary. Either one outlines the facts and opinions contained in the
documents you retrieved; the summary is generally more detailed.
If your client asked specific questions, your summary will present
the answers in a nutshell. The summary should contain the key
information your research revealed, highlight any discrepancies
between sources, and be easy to read quickly. Bullets are preferable to lengthy paragraphs.
Depending on your subject expertise and the client’s needs,
you may also include analysis in your report. Analysis consists of
your conclusions and recommendations based on the information you retrieved, on your familiarity with the sources used, on
46
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 47 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
your knowledge of the industry, target company, and your own
company, and on your understanding of the problem your client
wants to solve. In your analysis you may want to include:
•
•
•
A discussion of the biases of reporters, analysts, and industry
experts whose statements are in the report
A review of any conflicting information and a critique of the
sources that provided it and their methods of gathering data
An evaluation of the quality of the information provided,
especially that obtained from free Web sites
If there are any questions you were not able to answer, you
should furnish a list of sources checked, an outline of your search
strategy, and any conclusions you can draw from the absence of
information.
When your analysis includes recommendations, it should also
thoroughly discuss the reasons for your suggestions, and the
report should contain sufficient data to support your
conclusions.
Formatting the Results
How you format your summary and the accompanying documents
depends on how your client will use the information. If you provide
a detailed summary for an executive, you may decide to cite the
documents with footnotes but not to include them in the report. If
your client will be conducting further analysis of the information,
the full documents will need to accompany the summary, and you
should provide a table of contents listing the documents.
The documents you retrieve will very likely be in a variety of
formats. Some you can convert to a word-processing format,
others will be in PDF or in a spreadsheet format. If your client will
need to work further with the documents in a word-processing
software such as Microsoft Word, you should incorporate as
much of the data as possible into a Word document. Portions of
PDF documents can be copied and pasted into Word, as can
tables and graphs from a spreadsheet program such as Excel. You
should remove any confusing coding and extraneous citation
information (such as ISSNs and internal database document
numbers) contained in documents downloaded from online
database services. Documents from free Web pages may need
extensive reformatting, including reinsertion of graphics and
elimination of hard returns at the ends of lines. If your client is
likely to perform additional analysis on financial data, it should
47
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 48 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Introduction to Online Company Research
be provided in spreadsheet format. For the client who will use the
information you have gathered in a presentation, you may need
to format your summary as PowerPoint slides.
Your goals in formatting your report should be:
•
•
•
To make the conclusions easy to find and understand
To provide as much backup documentation as your client
needs in an uncluttered and uncomplicated format
To allow the client to incorporate the information into his or
her own reports with minimal effort
The Importance of Packaging
The value and validity of your report will be determined, in part,
by how it looks. If the report is difficult to read because the font is
too small or too unconventional, if the reader has to flip back
and forth through the report to find a particular section, or if the
overall design of the report is very different from those your client receives from others in the company, your efforts will not be
accorded the importance or recognition they deserve. Paying
attention to these key cosmetic considerations can help ensure
that the information you present does the job:
•
•
•
•
48
White space. Generous margins, frequent paragraph breaks,
and adequate space between lines of text make a report more
inviting to the reader. An unbroken page of text looks boring
and difficult to read, even if it is not.
Headings and bullets. Headings help the reader navigate
through a document. You may use an entire page to explain a
concept, but the heading lets the reader know where the discussion begins and ends. Bullets tell the reader what information is particularly important.
Headers and footers. For a lengthy report with multiple sections, headers and/or footers that indicate the section name
and page numbers are essential. You can also use a header or
footer to identify yourself or your department as the report
authors.
Fonts. Although word processors have dozens of fonts available, you should use the font most often used for reports
within your organization. You can vary the size and use boldface for headings, but you should limit the number of different fonts within a document. You want to make the
document easy to read. You do not want your reader to be
distracted by the typography.
0-538-72683-0_01 Page 49 Friday, January 9, 2004 4:00 PM
Chapter 1 Introduction to Company Research Strategies
•
Title pages. At the very least your title page should contain the
title of the report, the date, your client’s name, and your
name. You may also want to include department names and
codes, budgetary information, a list of sources used, and your
organization’s logo—whatever information is part of the
organization’s standard. When you deliver a report in PowerPoint, use the organization-standard background. If there is
no standard, select a conservative background. Again, you do
not want your client, or your client’s audience, to be distracted from the content of the report by an unconventional
presentation.
Every organization has its own style. Some have specific
guidelines for fonts, title pages, and the use of logos. If you are
unaware of style standards in your organization, check with an
administrative assistant. Even an organization that does not have
set guidelines will still have a style that reflects its culture. The
reports generated by individuals in an advertising agency will
undoubtedly look much different from those prepared in a
financial services company, even if the subject matter is similar.
The way you format your reports should emulate the
organization’s style as much as possible. Look at other reports
generated at the same organization level and in the same
departments as your clients’. These reports will provide
important clues to the unstated expectations of your clients. If
your reports look the way your clients expect them to, the
conclusions they present are more likely to be accepted.
49